Interesting article appearing in The American Culture
I can’t imagine any other band that could pull off such a spectacle. There was a giant “claw” planted in the middle of the stadium, glowing, flashing, and billowing smoke at various points during the evening; there were massive screens broadcasting footage of Mark Kelly from the International Space Station; plus remote controlled bridges that glided above the audience while the singer and guitarist performed atop them. By all rights, critics ought to have been able to write Spinal Tap across the top and be done with it.
But I’m talking about U2 here, who were doing “big” arena-type shows even back in the days when they were performing to 50 people in smoke-filled Dublin dives. As far as I can tell, they’re incapable of phoning in a performance, which is what makes this outsized 360 Degree tour work. You could say that the exterior trappings have simply caught up with the monster-sized ambitions that were always there.
Thirty-five years into their career, U2 occupy a unique position. The same four musicians who played on their first album Boy are the musicians treading the boards now, and this gives their work a focus and consistency lacking from most other rock bands–which typically tend to be porous with members coming and going. There also seems to be a genuine love and camaraderie in the group; lead singer Bono is capable of every type of posturing you can imagine, but when he wraps his arm around bassist Adam Clayton or shares the mike with guitarist The Edge, the affection is genuine. These are four Dubliners who lived their shared dream and continue to pay homage to the relationships that made that feat possible.
Some of the songs performed at U2′s June 4 show in Seattle–such as “With or Without You” and “Pride (In the Name of Love)”–have probably been trotted out at every single gig since their inception decades ago, but the band does a convincing job of keeping the performances fresh. Perhaps this is due to the group’s tendency to surround the better-known songs with deep album cuts, some of which, in the case of the Seattle show, were quite daring choices for an arena audience: “Miss Sarajevo” (originally recorded with Brian Eno and Pavarotti under the “Passengers’ pseudonym; “Scarlet”–more an incantation than a song–from the 1981 album October; “Zooropa”–the title track from their underrated 1993 effort; and a smattering of cuts from their recent No Line on the Horizon. The band also seemed determined to rescue the critically maligned “Discotheque” and “Get on Your Boots” from their perceived unfair savaging, something they achieved handily.
This tour is about the best you could ask for from U2. Whether or not they’re at their creative peak, they’re certainly at the height of their abilities as performers. In a perfect world, I would love to see The Edge loosen up and improvise more–he’s certainly capable of it. But as far as what U2 do right here, right now, the 360 Degree Tour is the “toppermost of the poppermost,” as the Beatles used to say.
Now, if you will indulge me for a moment while I turn to the outsized personality of U2′s singer: in the long, obnoxious history of rock-star activism, an exception should be made for Bono, for he is so sincere, works so hard at it, and does his homework so thoroughly that he’s actually managed to have a significant impact on the world. This is a bit of an inconvenient truth for us cynics; it would be so much easier to write off the whole lot of rock do-gooders as coke-addled overgrown children with messianic delusions. But there’s Bono: friends with Nelson Mandela, successful partner to US presidents of both political parties, perpetual fundraiser for the needy and oppressed all over the world.
I mention all this because at the Seattle concert, Bono appeared to take partial credit for the recent release of Aung San Suu Kyi: the long-imprisoned, would-be leader of Burma. This declaration seemed at first to be the height of hubris. But then Aung San Suu Kyi herself appeared on a video feed thanking the U2 fans for helping secure her release by flooding the Burmese government with petitions. U2 had been mentioning her at every performance for the previous few years, focusing all their star power to shine a light on her plight. It’s easy to criticize Bono’s bombastic approach to philanthropy, but its effectiveness can be little in doubt. I have to admit that the arguments against giving him a Nobel Peace Prize are diminishing each year. Particularly now that the committee has shown a willingness to award it to sitting presidents prior to the completion of their first year in office. Absolutely no disrespect intended to Barack Obama, but Bono has been on the world stage engaging in humanitarian issues for far, far longer than the current President of the United States.
Lest I go too far astray here, I should point out that one can enjoy U2′s music “with or without” buying into its political message. I was first drawn to the band due to The Edge’s innovative and textured guitar work, and all these years later that is still what draws me. U2 have struck a good balance in their music between worldly concerns and the more personal concerns of love, hope, faith, failure and redemption. And more than any other current “supergroup” they deserve their success because they still work for it every single night.
They are, quite simply, the best.
Robert Dean Lurie is the author of No Certainty Attached: Steve Kilbey and The Church
http://stkarnick.com/culture/
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